Stone Guanyin, originally named Li Qi, had come from the Huangshan Family and was its sole survivor. More than twenty years ago, a great battle had erupted between Mount Hua and the Huangshan Family. Mount Hua's many experts had successfully earned the achievement of wiping out an entire clan, but their failure to finish the job had left one root of future calamity alive.
Although Stone Guanyin had escaped death, she could no longer gain a foothold in the Central Plains, so she crossed the sea east to Fusang.
There, she met Tianfeng Shisilang, who loved her devotedly, and bore him two children. But once she had learned a full repertoire of mysterious martial arts, she abandoned them, returned to the mainland, and killed the Huashan Seven Swords, avenging the Huangshan Family's blood feud.
That was also how Mount Hua's decline had begun.
Now, however, Fang Yunhua's appearance had given Mount Hua another chance to flourish. As its sworn enemy, Stone Guanyin naturally would not let it expand its influence without a care in the world.
For instance, when the reform plan had first been implemented, Fang Yunhua had noticed certain obstacles. Branch disciples opening up trade routes outside the sect had been attacked by mysterious assailants, while outer disciples who used Mount Hua's reputation to run escort services had suffered repeated raids on their shipments.
As a result, Mount Hua's expansion had been far from smooth. Only when Fang Yunhua borrowed the tiger's hide of Xue Yiren, who was related by marriage to the Ten Thousand Blessings and Longevity Garden, Cup-Tossing Manor, and Shi Family Manor, had he checked that downward slide.
Meanwhile, Fang Yunhua, whose memories had not fully awakened back then, had kept investigating the identity of this hidden enemy.
Now, the answer had simply presented itself.
Stone Guanyin feared the Demoness of the Emerald Sea and did not dare venture lightly into the Central Plains. Her underlings could not act too brazenly, either.
One of her dear sons, Wuhua, had always focused on cultivating his reputation at Shaolin. At most, he would only dare do dirty work in secret. A series of operations aimed at curbing Mount Hua's development required enormous manpower, so he could only have been an accomplice.
The only remaining candidate for the one who had done most of the work was Stone Guanyin's other son, Nangong Ling, who had now succeeded as chief of the Beggar Gang.
His position as chief was hardly secure. After all, he had been driven into such a corner that, like a desperate dog leaping over a wall, he had resorted to employing someone as notoriously rotten as the White Jade Demon Beggar. As the largest gang under heaven, the Beggar Gang had no shortage of scum, all of whom he could deploy to carry out deeds that could not bear the light of day.
After confirming who had been stirring up trouble in the shadows, Fang Yunhua breathed a sigh of relief.
Because, according to the plot's coming course, Nangong Ling, Wuhua, and Stone Guanyin-every last one of them-would fall at the hands of the Jade-Faced Yama sitting before him.
They were all gonna die!
What Fang Yunhua needed to consider now was how to exploit his advantage in information and use the truth behind their deaths to maximize both Mount Hua's interests and his own. That would also count as compensation for the economic losses caused by their relentless interference over the past few years.
"Brother Fang, you don't understand Wuhua. He would never do such a thing."
While Fang Yunhua was lost in thought, Chu Liuxiang mistakenly took his silence as displeasure over his outright dismissal of Wuhua as a suspect.
To him, Fang Yunhua was a new friend, while Wuhua was an old one. The three of them also shared the remarkable distinction of ranking as the top three dream lovers of the martial world's many heroines.
If the three of them could one day drink tea, admire the moon, and listen to music together aboard his treasure ship, he could scarcely imagine what an elegant delight it would be.
Thus, he began earnestly explaining all the reasons Wuhua could not possibly have committed the crime.
Fang Yunhua responded by smiling and nodding, while inwardly cursing up a storm. Didn't he know that Wuhua was the one who had gotten Situ Jing pregnant? His status as a monk was actually a strong basis for suspecting that he could enter and leave the Divine Water Palace.
But saying it now would do no good. Until Chu Liuxiang saw genuinely reliable evidence, he would surely believe his friend.
There was, however, something he could bring up now. It would also let Fang Yunhua have a little fun at Chu Liuxiang's expense.
"Of course I believe what you say, Commander Chu. But why don't we make a few assumptions? Suppose I'm Wuhua, and it's already been conclusively established that I'm the culprit. Then I'd like to know what you, as this Wonderful Monk's friend, would do."
This time, Chu Liuxiang did not keep arguing that Wuhua could never be the culprit, even hypothetically. He roughly guessed that Fang Yunhua wanted to play some very novel sort of game with him and was happy to cooperate.
After a moment's silence, his expression grew serious.
Because truly placing himself within that hypothetical situation made his heart ache. Even so, a criminal's sins still needed to be judged.
"I would let those empowered to punish him handle the matter impartially."
This was also Chu Liuxiang's answer in the original story. For someone of the martial world, choosing to turn a man over to the authorities was, in a sense, quite unconventional.
"If I were Wuhua, I would never accept that outcome. I would even rather die at your hands."
Hearing Fang Yunhua's answer, Chu Liuxiang shook his head. He had never personally killed anyone, much less would he deal a fatal blow to a friend who had gone astray.
But just as he was about to speak, Fang Yunhua revealed a smile that struck him as decidedly mischievous.
"I'm Wuhua, so naturally I understand Commander Chu very well. Commander Chu still cherishes our friendship. Though he insists that I be dealt with impartially, he's a gentleman, and that gives me something to exploit."
"What is it?" Chu Liuxiang grew curious as well.
"When you can't bring yourself to kill me and only want to hand me over to be judged by the law, I can choose suicide."
"Huh?"
"As long as I die, our former friendship means Commander Chu will surely respect my final shred of pride and allow me a dignified ending, with death wiping my debts clean."
After thinking it over, Chu Liuxiang nodded.
Then he heard Fang Yunhua change tack once more.
"Precisely because I understand Commander Chu so well, I can successfully prepare this performance of faking my death to escape. There are many methods in this world that can place someone in a deathlike state. With Commander Chu's character, he would never allow my corpse to be desecrated. That makes this my one chance to find life within death."
This time, Chu Liuxiang remained silent for a long, long, long time. Only after the cup of tea before him, which he had praised as a rare treasure, had gone cold did he release a heavy sigh.
Everyone knew Commander Chu was a clever man.
If he still failed to understand that Fang Yunhua's hypothetical game was more than just a game, he would hardly deserve the martial world's praise.
Yet the gap in their knowledge also made it impossible for him to imagine that Fang Yunhua was directly pointing out a turn of events he was certain to encounter in the future.
At present, he had yet to work out the connection between the other four of the five floating corpses, aside from the Divine Water Palace disciple.
He still had a very, very long way to go before uncovering the truth of this case, and naturally would not draw any further connections.
But at this moment, one thing became deeply engraved in his memory.
If anyone committed suicide before him in the future, he would first examine the body to determine whether the person was truly dead or merely feigning death.
This hypothetical discussion also left Chu Liuxiang feeling rather heavyhearted, so he promptly steered the conversation toward the next subject that interested him.
"I hear that Senior Xue Yiren has collected many of the world's renowned swords. Brother Fang, you're probably the only person currently known to have taken one from his treasured collection."
Fang Yunhua had still been teasing Chu Liuxiang, inwardly amused as he imagined the memorable scene of Wuhua trying to fake his death again, only for old Chu to expose him on the spot and reduce his lofty mystique to dust.
After hearing Chu Liuxiang's remark, however, his mood grew heavy enough to put him on an even footing with Commander Chu once again.
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